Corn, cotton, and wheat were up; and soybeans were down for the week.

This past week was a volatile week in commodity futures markets. The biggest story in agricultural markets this week was the announcement, by China, of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural products such as soybeans, corn, wheat, sorghum, beef, and cotton. It is important to point out that these tariffs have not been implemented yet simply announced
as potential retaliatory measures to be imposed in the future. If the tariffs were  it would not be good for U.S. agriculture, particularly for commodities that rely on exports to China, such as soybeans and cotton. Hopefully the two nations can work out their trade differences prior to the enactment of the tariffs.

When the tariffs were announced on Wednesday futures prices immediately dropped: soybeans 40-50 cents; corn 10-15 cents; wheat 10-15 cents; and cotton 1.5-2.5 cents. By the close of Thursday all four commodities had regained all or most of these loses. While I’m not yet convinced that the tariffs on soybeans will come in to effect (Chinese soybean consumers have as much to lose as US soybean producers), in the short-term we could potentially see accelerated export sales and shipments before the proposed tariffs are scheduled to be implemented as exporters attempt to secure and deliver product before tariff implementation. This could support prices in the short term. Continue reading at Tennessee Market Highlights.